Because data network connectivity is considered essential in a majority of businesses and enterprises, most companies provide some type of wide area network (WAN) connection, such as an internet connection, to their employees. Often the WAN connection is provided in the employee's office at the company's business location. For enterprises that operate field or sales offices, those remote sites may also be wired for internet connectivity, even though the offices may have few if any employees present on a regular basis. In addition, many employees, for example sales representatives or service technicians, are required to spend a significant amount of time traveling outside the office. To accommodate these employees, an employer may also provide wireless internet access via subscription to a Wireless WAN (WWAN). Consequently an enterprise may incur costs for three types of internet connections: principal business location connectivity, remote site connectivity, and wireless connectivity for mobility, even though a fair portion of the resources may remain underutilized or idle. Thus, from a business operations perspective, it would be desirable to maximize utilization of the WAN resources while ensuring that users have access to the resources they need to productively conduct company business.
As mentioned above, many enterprises provide wireless mobile connectivity for their employees. With the continued growth in the use of laptops, personal digital assistants (PDAs), handheld computers and other wireless devices, Wireless Wide Area Networks (WWANs) are playing an increasingly significant role in facilitating communications around the globe. Unlike Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) networks that provide wireless communication in accordance with IEEE 802.11(a), (b) and (g) protocols within a limited geographical area, for example within a building, WWANs use cellular technology to provide wireless transfer of data over large geographical areas via communication protocols that include encryption schemes that provide secure communications. Devices that communicate over WWANs have a built in radio that allows them to transmit and receive data over the wireless network.
The WWAN bandwidth available to a user is dependent on the type of cellular network and the signal strength at the user's location. There are several types of WWANs in operation today, the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), the Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE), the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) and the High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), to name a few. A user with an EDGE card that enables communication over the EDGE network can typically be allocated a bandwidth of 100 kbs. UMTS subscribers can receive 250-300 kbps of bandwidth, while HSGPA subscribers can be allocated 500-700 kbs of bandwidth by the network provider. Although the bandwidth allocated by the carrier network to an individual subscriber can be sufficient to nominally support the user's communication needs, there are some applications that can demand a higher bandwidth than that allocated by the network in order to operate at a desired quality of service. For example the user may wish to participate in a videoconference which typically requires high data rates. For these applications the network bandwidth allocated to the user can be insufficient to support the desired application, or may support it in a slow or degraded manner that the user deems unacceptable. Consequently, although the user may enjoy the mobility that a WWAN offers, he can be stymied in his attempt to use the WWAN to conduct the operations that he desires. It would be advantageous to the user to be able to increase his bandwidth when necessary to accommodate high data rate applications.
A user can obtain higher data rates, on the order of 7 Mbps for the 802.11(b) protocol, and up to around 50 Mbps under 802.11(a) and (g) protocols, by connecting to a Wi-Fi network. Communication over a Wi-Fi network requires that a user's laptop, PDA, or other mobile device to be equipped with a Wi-Fi radio and also requires that a user have access to a Wi-Fi hotspot. Although Wi-Fi networks have been operable for many years, the number of hotspot locations remains disappointingly limited; consequently, users may not be assured of hotspot access at a particular location. Often deployed in airports, hotels, or other public venues, hotspot locations are prone to becoming congested, resulting in degraded performance, or even loss of access when a maximum number of users has been reached. In addition, when accessing a public hotspot the security of the communications conducted may prove to be a legitimate concern, particularly for a user conducting company business. Finally, a further disadvantage of using a Wi-Fi network for high data rate internet access is that a Wi-Fi network operates within a much smaller coverage area, requiring a user to be within close proximity of a hotspot, and thereby limiting the mobility of a user.
In the past, bandwidths have been increased for devices by aggregating multiple wired connections. For example three 56.6 kbps modems can be linked to provide an aggregated bandwidth of 169.8 kbps. However the maximum bandwidth acquired is limited by the number of physical connections available. Further, aggregation performed in this manner is static, rather than dynamic in response to user needs. More importantly, aggregation of wired connections provides increased bandwidth only to users communicatively coupled with the wired connections. For example, a host can be coupled to the aggregated connections and users access the bandwidth via the host. Consequently, bandwidth aggregated in this manner does not address the increased bandwidth needs of mobile, wireless users.
A further consideration related to providing internet connectivity is the fact that an internet connection, while being paid for by the subscriber, can actually be idle, i.e. not used for data transfer, for a considerable amount of time. There are two primary reasons for this idle state: (1) the device is not being used by the user, and (2) the device is being used, but the device is not actively engaged in the transfer of data over the connection. This is because a user will often download a web page or file, which may take only a few seconds, then spend several minutes perusing the loaded page. Consequently, within a particular enterprise, one employee may be reading a web page while his WAN connection remains idle. Meanwhile, other employees may wish to engage in sessions that require high data rates, such as videoconferences, but are unable to do so because their WAN connections will not support the high data rate required to conduct the conference. Thus, while one employee has access to resources that he does not currently need, another employee has insufficient resources to perform a desired operation.
Therefore, there is a need for systems and methods that dynamically increase the bandwidth available to a user in response to a user's communications requirements. There is also a need for systems and methods that dynamically optimize the utilization of network resources in a cost-effective manner. Finally, there is a need for systems and methods that provide a user high quality communication services along with location mobility.